Freqtrade: A Comprehensive Guide to the Open-Source Crypto Trading Bot
Freqtrade is a free and open-source cryptocurrency trading bot written in Python. Designed for versatility and ease of use, it supports major exchanges and offers control via Telegram or a web UI. Its features include backtesting, plotting, money management tools, and strategy optimization through machine learning. This guide provides a detailed overview of Freqtrade's capabilities and how to use it effectively.
Key Features
- Strategy Development: Create custom trading strategies in Python using pandas. Numerous example strategies are available in the strategy repository to get you started.
- Market Data Download: Download historical exchange data for the markets you wish to trade.
- Backtesting: Thoroughly test your strategies against historical data.
- Optimization: Fine-tune your strategy parameters using hyperoptimization, leveraging machine learning methods to maximize profitability. Optimize buy, sell, take profit (ROI), stop-loss, and trailing stop-loss parameters.
- Market Selection: Create static market lists or utilize automatic selection based on trading volume and/or price. Blacklist unwanted markets.
- Trading Execution: Test strategies with simulated funds (Dry-Run mode) or deploy them with real money (Live-Trade mode).
- Edge Module (Optional): Identify optimal historical trade expectancy by market, adjusting stop-loss, and allowing/rejecting trades based on risk percentage of your capital.
- Control and Monitoring: Use Telegram or a web UI to start/stop the bot, monitor profit/loss, view daily summaries, and track open trades.
- Data Analysis: Perform in-depth analysis on backtesting data or Freqtrade trading history (SQL database), including automated plots and data loading into interactive environments.
Supported Exchanges
Freqtrade supports a wide range of exchanges. Always refer to the official documentation for the most up-to-date list and any exchange-specific configuration requirements.
Spot Exchanges:
- Binance
- BingX
- Bitmart
- Bybit
- Gate.io
- HTX (formerly Huobi)
- Hyperliquid (DEX)
- Kraken
- OKX (formerly OKEX)
- Many others (compatibility not guaranteed)
Futures Exchanges (Experimental):
- Binance
- Bybit
- Gate.io
- Hyperliquid (DEX)
- OKX
Community-Tested Exchanges:
- Bitvavo
- Kucoin
Community Showcase
The Freqtrade community has developed several helpful tools and resources:
- FrequentHippo - Grafana dashboard for dry/live runs and backtests
- Online pairlist generator
- Freqtrade Backtesting Project
- Freqtrade analysis notebook
- TUI for Freqtrade
- Bot Academy - Blog about crypto bot projects
Requirements
Hardware:
- Minimum 2GB RAM
- 1GB disk space
- 2 vCPU (recommended)
Software:
- Docker (recommended)
- Python 3.10+
- pip
- git
- TA-Lib
- virtualenv (recommended)
Getting Started
Begin by reviewing the installation guide for Docker (recommended) or the alternative installation without Docker. The Quickstart guide will then walk you through the initial setup and configuration.
Disclaimer
Freqtrade is for educational purposes only. Use at your own risk. The authors assume no responsibility for trading results. Always start with Dry-Run mode before using real funds.